The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1887-09-21
A f0RETASTE OF War.
BY JAMES FRANKLIN Fits.

tllltleS, the aspect OF Things appearet
quite serious, but it turned out rather
farce. Still there was real pros
pect of bloodshed in the adventure,
and the writer and some fifty or sixty
other ardent young soldiers in blue,
with and without shouider-straps, then
satisfied themselves that they were not
afraid to go were there was danger of
being shot at. Anyway, the story is
worth telling.
1t happened about April or May,
1862. i had been in the military SER
vice of the United States since the pre-
vious September, and / had not yet
heard bullet fly. l was a subaltern
in the Tenth New York Cavalry Regi-
ment. The Government had stopped
recruiting before we had got organized,
and it looked in the late fall of 1861 as
though we should never be a regiment.
Finally, in the last days of December,
eight companies were mustered in, and
we were dispatched southwark from
Elmira. From that time clear up to
the second battle of Bull Run, eight
months later, the Government treated
Us very much as though we were SUI
perhuous, and CT no manner of use.
First, we were put in barracks at Get
tysburg. That now worldwide famous
town had not been discovered at that
time; it lay amid the hills of Southern
Pennsylvania in all its original Dutch
sleepiness, and nobody dreamed of
such thing as that the greatest battle
of the war was to be fought on that
very ground. Surely, when we buried
one of our comrades on grand Gene
terry Hill one lovely spring Sabbath
the very first soldier ever inferred on
that historic spot-he would have been
deemed crazy who had predicted that in
little more than year deadly TEN.
pest of fire, lead, and iron would rage
about this spot, and that, a little later
on, thousands of soldiers graves would
dot these heights.
No; we never dreamed of such a
thing. We were at Gettysburg till the
following March; the regiment was not
mounted till August. We had an ex
ceedingly good time. We had some
dismounted drill; we ate large quanti-
ties of apple-butter and hominy, the
principal products of the region; and
those of us who were young and frivo
lous Gas nearly all soldiers were in
those days fiirted with the Dutch
girls. l have always thought that if
our fed officers had not continually
stirred up the War Department on the
subject of mounting us and putting us
into the field, we would have been
right there when General Lee invaded
Pennsylvania. But in March we were
ordered to get on tho line of the rail
road from Baltimore to Havre-de-
Grace, at the mouth of the Susquehan-
ma, and guard it. AS dull sabers were
not very efficient weapons to guard any
thing with, lot of secondhand but
still serviceable muskets, were issued
to us. And then the lively row, that
just fell short of being mutiny The
men protested and swore that they
were cavalry, not infantry, and accused
the officers of conspiracy with the War
Department to force muskets upon
them, and thus change their proud
condition in the service. We were, in
fact, up to that time about as much
cavalry as a lot of wooden hobby
horses are; but that made no difference
with what the men tn ught to be their
reserved rights. At last they were
convinced that this was to be merely
temporary service, and the muskets
were accepted.
From the stern realities of war as /
saw it in 1868 and 1864, my mind goes
back to those pleasant four months
along that railroad, and pronounces it
o delightful example of playing sol
der"
The region is the same that was in
vaded by that fire-eating guerilla, Har-
ry Gilmor, and his band when, in the
July of 1864, while Early was invad-
ing Maryland. they rode around Balti-
more, stopped railroad train at Gun
powder Bridge, captured General
Franklin on it, and put everybody in
terror by their capers.
But everything was peaceable enough
about there in the summer of 1862.
For sixty or eighty miles this road runs
around the head of Chesapeake Bay,
and at each few miles of the distance
q wide inlet is crossed by railroad
bridge. We were split up into detach-
ments, and posted at these bridges, to
prevent them from being eaten up by
the shad. | couldn't really see that
there was anything else to do. The
inhabitants of the country were gen
lOlht Dub thOl NOiO bAi hiuu
and hospitable, the Secessionists as
much so as the Union folks. 80 we
ate shad, visited the citizens made fire.
quent visits to Baltimore, read about
the Peninsula Campaign. and won
dered why Mcclellan didn't take Rich
mond. In short, we had a glorious
good time, and put on all the airs of
real soldiers.
One day the profound quiet of this
situation at the Back River Station. six
miles from Baltimore, was broken by
furry of real excitement. A negro
came to Captain Pratt commanding
Company Al and told him that a COM
pany of Baltimore Secessionists were
aboard a schooner, just off North Point,
only four our five miles from Back
River, and were about to go south
somewhere to join the Confederate
army. We knew that the negro was
both loyal aud reliable, and we saw a
prospect of some real work. Major
Avery had his quarters at this station,
but was absent on this day. l was on